Game 57: Indiana 108, Warriors 97

INDIANAPOLIS – The Warriors got a lesson in the toughness of playoff basketball Tuesday night.

They were shoved off the court in an early-fourth-quarter scrum and then bullied out of Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the rest of Indiana’s 108-97 victory.

The Pacers led 95-85 with 6:10 remaining when Indiana center Roy Hibbert took exception to a high elbow from David Lee on a rebound attempt. Hibbert shoved Lee with two hands, and the big men squared off with a violent chest bump.

Warriors point guard Stephen Curry was the first to the scrum, but he was twice swatted away like a gnat by Hibbert. Center Andris Biedrins tried to get involved, but the Pacers shoved Biedrins and Curry into the first row of the crowd.

Once Hibbert was ejected and six technical fouls were issued, the Pacers went on a 9-1 run to a 17-point lead and put away a game that had playoff-style physicality throughout.

The Warriors (33-24) had won three in a row in response to a season-worst, six-game losing streak, but they’ve now lost 11 of their past 15 road games and still have three more before returning to Oracle Arena for 16 of their final 22 games.

The Central Divison-leading Pacers (36-21) have won 10 of their past 12 games and are the league’s best defensive squad. They held the Warriors to 43.4 percent shooting and scored 29 points of the Warriors’ 20 turnovers.

Curry kept the Warriors in the game, scoring a season-high 38 points on 14-of-20 shooting, but the rest of the team connected on only 19 of 56 field-goal attempts. Nobody else scored more than 13 points for the Warriors.

West, who had six straight points after the scrum, scored a team-high 28 points for the Pacers to go along with seven rebounds. Point guard George Hill had 23 points and seven assists, and All-Star Paul George added 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The first quarter featured a point guard showdown. Curry scored the Warriors’ first seven points and had 10 in the opening 4:34 for a 12-6 lead. He recorded assists on the team’s next two field goals and had the Warriors ahead 18-6 before Hill got into a groove for Indiana.

Hill made back-to-back three-pointers to ignite his offensive outburst in the quarter’s closing minutes. He provided 15 points of the Pacers’ 19-4 run that put them ahead 31-22 with 46 seconds remaining in the first.

The Pacers converted the Warriors’ 11 first-half turnovers into 19 points, including using four gaffes during a 5:02 stretch of the second quarter to spark a 20-5 run and a 52-41 lead.

Curry responded with eight points in a 76-seconds span as part of a 12-2, half-ending run that trimmed the deficit to 54-53. During the stretch, Curry made Hill buckle and fall with a crossover dribble, and then Hill reached out from his prone position and tripped the Warriors’ point guard.

Indiana started to pull away in the third quarter, when the Pacers shot 50 percent from the floor and limited the Warriors to 36.4 percent shooting. During the frustrating span, Curry had a pass stolen, threw his mouthpiece on the court and kicked it under the team’s bench. Indiana used a 13-0 run during a 2:22 stretch of the third to take a 78-64 lead with 3:58 remaining.